STEVE BARNES/TIMES UNION
TONY LOUPESSIS owner of the Latham ?76 Diner looks on as Albany County health inspector Nichola Miller calibrates a thermometer in cold water on Monday.

STEVE BARNES/TIMES UNION
TONY LOUPESSIS owner of the Latham ?76 Diner looks on as Albany County health inspector Nichola Miller calibrates a thermometer in cold water on Monday.

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STEVE BARNES/TIMES UNION
TONY LOUPESSIS owner of the Latham ?76 Diner posts the results of his Albany County health inspection on Monday.

STEVE BARNES/TIMES UNION
TONY LOUPESSIS owner of the Latham ?76 Diner posts the results of his Albany County health inspection on Monday.

Image 8 of 9

STEVE BARNES/TIMES UNION
TONY LOUPESSIS owner of the Latham ?76 Diner posts the results of his Albany County health inspection on Monday.

STEVE BARNES/TIMES UNION
TONY LOUPESSIS owner of the Latham ?76 Diner posts the results of his Albany County health inspection on Monday.

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Diners know what they're going into

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COLONIE — At a little after 10 a.m. Monday, the first verdict in Albany County's new restaurant-inspections system was posted:

"Sanitary Inspection Results: Excellent Compliance" read the sign that Latham '76 Diner owner Tony Loupessis taped between the glass doors leading from the entryway into the restaurant. After a county health inspector noted only two minor violations — dust on a kitchen light fixture and a sealed case of hand soap stored above an unopened case of fryer oil in the basement — Latham '76 earned the top rating.

On Sunday, 13 months after passage by the County Legislature, a law took effect requiring the county's roughly 1,300 restaurants to post results of new health inspections near their front entrance, visible to customers before they enter. Inspection criteria, guided by state public health law, have not changed, and results have been available for years on the county's website.

What's new are the results forms and the display requirement. The signs announce a simple verdict of health inspections: excellent, good, fair or unsatisfactory. Only the first three will remain on display; restaurants that receive an "unsatisfactory" rating must be required to close immediately to remedy health violations and will be reinspected within days.

Latham '76 Diner's past eight inspections have all resulted in reports with few enough violations to have qualified for an "excellent," according to county records.

"I was confident that's what it would be" when health inspector Nichola Miller arrived midmorning Monday for a surprise visit, said Loupessis, whose family has owned Latham '76 for 40 years.

It will take until mid-2013 for the health department's 13 inspectors to visit all of the approximately 1,300 restaurants licensed in the county and post results, said Marcia Lenehan, the county's director of environmental health and supervisor of all health inspections. Another 300 or so differently licensed food facilities visited by inspectors – including hotels, mobile vendors, temporary food sellers at festivals and fairs, and children's camps – are not required to post inspection results, Lenehan said.

Inspectors decide which rating to award a restaurant based on a new matrix that takes into account the number of "blue" (minor) and "red" (serious) violations a restaurant receives.

Blue violations — as mundane as a dusty light fixture or a poster demonstrating the Heimlich maneuver not being clearly visible in employee areas — are not considered a danger to public health but must be remedied. Red violations are for conditions that could result in sickening employees or customers and must be taken care of immediately.

Although the county regulation allows fines of up to $2,000, the maximum under state law, in practice only the most serious red violations carry a monetary penalty, $100. Offenses subject to fines include employees not using protective gloves and thermometers not being available for staff to monitor food temperatures, said Lenehan.

Restaurants also may be fined for failing to post the ratings inspection form. The form, according to the new law, must be displayed on a front door, window or wall, or within 5 feet of the front door, and at a height of 4 to 6 feet.

The law requires that restaurants receiving a "fair" rating be reinspected within two to three weeks, while those that receive a "good" may request a reinspection to be carried out as staffing and resources permit. Inspections are done at county expense, and there is no provision to let restaurants to pay for reinspection to be done more quickly.

The reinspection provisions were put in place after hospitality industry representatives told county officials during hearings last year that they were worried that a "good" or "fair" in the front window for a year — the normal time between county inspections — would scare away customers.

The state restaurant association is pleased that county legislators and health officials addressed its members' concerns about the notification requirements, said Melissa Fleischut, the trade group's vice president and director of governmental affairs.

"Our members by and large have a great working relationship with the Albany County Health Department and the inspections process. (Inspectors) have always been very educational" about how restaurants can remedy problems, Fleischut said.

Albany County and New York City are the only municipalities statewide that require on-premises public display of health inspections, although it is mandated elsewhere in the country.

"We have to give it a couple of months to see if it is onerous on the small-business owner," said Chris Higgins, a Democratic county legislator and candidate for the Assembly who sponsored the notification legislation. "It's my guess that in the end everybody will be satisfied, from the consumer to the restaurant owner."